Elderberry extract: the ancient yet hot commodity around combating cold and flu symptoms. With a plethora of nutrients this little berry packs vitamin A, C, iron, folate, potassium, calcium, flavonoids, and fiber. As with many fruits and veggies though, they can also contain some less than desireable chemicals as well, in this case trace cyanide (mostly in their raw form).

The extract is marketed to be anti-viral, help with bone density, shorten colds and upper respiratory infections, reduce cold and flu symptoms, help with skin blemishes and aging, as well as decrease pain and inflammation. It’s a song and dance we have witnessed many times before as many of the all natural supplements like this present a bit of a conundrum. There’s old stories and personal anecdotes that indicate they can' be helpful, but little actual scientific evidence that isn’t funded by commercial sources looking to sell you something. I think the best we can do is to present an even picture of the literature and then decide for ourselves.

In the case of Elderberry, much of the beneficial claims are derived from the nutritional property of the berries themselves. Vitamin A is great for your skin. Vitamin C is said to help fight infections. Calcium, iron, and potassium help keep bones healthy. Iron helps create new red blood cells. Potassium is beneficial for heart health. Fiber promotes a healthy digestive system and flavonoids are little antioxidant powerhouses helping us fight disease.

A study done in 2014 published to the NCBI looked at the effects of elderberry supplementation in travelers. The study concluded that elderberry had a general effect of reducing the duration of the cold, but it should also be noted that the participant group taking the supplement had a higher percentage of non-smokers who had also received a flu shot. The trial was funded by an elderberry supplement company which lends to the question of whether the supplement was actually as effective as concluded or if the non-placebo group was just healthier overall.

In 2000, a study completed in Norway, also funded by an elderberry supplement company found the extract to reduce colds by up to four days. The study provided other medications and nasal sprays to participants who felt the extract (or placebo) was not effective. Overall a great sign, but…. there were less than 100 participants and no lifestyle information listed.

Naturex, another supplement company, hosted a study on astragalus root and elderberry fruit extract with more of an emphasis on the science. They looked at two strains of bacteria, E-coli and lactobacillus acidophilus, and the effect of both supplements on each strain within dendritic cells. Dendritic cells are housed in our immune systems and function to process antigens and provide them to other cells. Looking to suppress the negative effects of the E-coli bacteria, both supplements had a slight effect. In this case, the study was done in vitro so while the results are interesting, its hard to understand if they’d translate to live animals.

Berrypharma hosted another study that looked at a variety of human respiratory infections in a lab and compared the results of no extract, 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20% extract. The 10% extract reduced the bacterial growth by 70%. The 20% extract brought the bacterial count down to 1% of what was originally measured. The study also sneaks in that all samples of bacteria were previously treated with antibiotics which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it unlikely that you’re taking antibiotics all the time (at least you shouldn’t be). It’d be interested to know if this pre-treatment was necessary for the elderberry to work… but alas, we don’t know the answer.

While the data seems to point toward there being a modest benefit to elderberry extract in boosting immunity, the overall evidence is a bit lacking compared to some of the better supplements out there. Personally, I’ve tried taking a combination of elderberry and astragalus every day this winter to see if there would be any benefits. I’ve managed to avoid 2 colds that my wife caught (meaning I was likely exposed) but with no controls and a small sample size, it could just be luck. As for the other benefits of increased vitamins, etc you’re likely better off just eating real fruits like blueberries, blackberries, strawberries and the like as they all have incredible nutrient profiles that will benefit anyone who incorporates them into their diet. We should be ingesting a colorful assortment of fruits and veggies to provide ourselves these nutrients. When food is treated as fuel it also functions as preventative medicine. Supplementation is fine but should not be necessary if we have variance in our nutrition.

ASTRAGALUS is an herb that been around for a very long time in Chinese medicine for a variety of conditions including Hepatitis and Cancer. More recently, it has been recognized as an adaptogen and gained some notoriety in the rest of the world. I wanted to detail some of the benefits of this herb and then talk about METTA (M2PN20 for a discount code), a drink that combines Astragalus with other herbs to help support adrenal function.

As most of you know, I’m a former Immunologist. I first learned about Astraglus for its effects in promoting what we call Th1 immune responses. Th1 immunity helps us to fight viruses, bacteria and cancer, all things that we want a nice strong response for. However, the body has designed lots of “breaks” on the immune system to prevent it from getting too strong. One of those breaks is stress, which dampens our Th1 response and instead pushes it more towards Th2 immunity. Th2 responses aren’t inherently bad, they help us to fight parasite infections, but unfortunately the Th2 pathway is often corrupted into causing allergies.

How’s that for some hard core immunology??? Sexy stuff right there.

As most of us have pretty stressful lives, a little push back towards Th1 immunity using an herbal supplement such as astragalus makes a lot of sense. Checking through the literature, you can also find astragalus supplementation linked to:

Any downsides you might ask??? There’s nothing firm, but if you have an autoimmune condition, I might be a little careful and dose carefully since many AI diseases are Th1 mediated as well.

How to take astragalus?

There’s of a few options here. Of course, you can just take a normal powdered pill (want to dose between 250 and 500 mg 2X a day). In fact, I have this in my supplement closet right now.

I also want to talk about a great product that I was presented at a Crossfit event this Spring called Metta, which is a mix of adaptogens including Astragalus. I don’t have time to break down the entire list there, but its a legit combination backed on pretty solid science! I was impressed, and the taste is great. The price is similar or a little lower than other “energy” drinks out there but with a much better health profile in my humble opinion.

I’m usually pretty suspicious of products like this so I honestly grilled these guys on the science behind their product. Amazingly, they did a great job defending the entire product. If you want to give it a try, feel free to use our M2 specific 20% discount code, M2PN20 when you check out.

There’s been a lot of chatter within the fitness world lately about the potential benefits of CBD oil. It’s a topic that we’ve been paying close attention to here at M2 Performance Nutrition, and we thought we’d give you our opinion on whether CBD might be right for you.

Full disclosure: We like the stuff and have partnered with Pure Spectrum to provide M2 clients with a 10-20% discount code (M2PN). Why Pure Specturm? 1) Its really pure… no THC at all. This is important for athletes getting drug tested 2) It doesn’t taste like dog-poop. Many CBD oils smell like a frat house on Sunday morning and I don't need that in my life 3) Price is pretty legit for the quality of product. We fully recognize that this partnership will cause some bias on the topic, but we have tried to present a full picture and not cherry-pick the data.

They've also partnered with the Crossfit Games as well!

What is CBD?

CBD stands for Cannabidiol, a naturally occurring compound that can be derived from both cannabis and hemp based products, originally discovered in the 1940s. Interestingly scientists originally thought it was pretty much biologically inactive but over time we’ve discovered that it can have a number of therapeutic benefits. As time progressed, we learned that the body has a complex neurotransmitter system that is based around compounds that are similar in structure to CBD. Researchers are still learning how to exploit this system, but a significant amount of progress has been made. Of interest, there are several prescription based medicines that are essentially pure CBD. Sativex is prescribed to patients with Mulitple Sclerosis for pain management, while Epidiolex is approved for the treatment of several forms of epilepsy. We’ll dive more into this, but pain management, anxiety and neurological conditions are all targets for CBD therapy.

While CBD has a number of effects on the body, it does not make you feel “stoned” in any sense of the word. Its cousin, THC, is fully responsible for those affects. So, if you’re looking for a nice high… you’ve come to the wrong place.

Nowadays, you can find CBD in oils, creams, gummies and vape pens. Personally, I’ve been testing out oil tincture that goes under the tongue and a cream/salve that I put onto a chronically inflamed elbow.

Let’s dive down into some of the ways that people are exploring CBD for therapeutic benefits.

CBD for the treatment of muscle and joint pain

There are a dozen different reasons that a body part can be painful, and while CBD has not been shown to be effective for all of them, there certainly is evidence that creams and oral consumption can help with body pain. In athletes, most of the time, pain is caused by over-use causing micro-tears in the tissue. This results in the immune system being locally activated and a feedback loop of chronic inflammation begins. Of course, rest or some corrective exercises can typically solve this problem, but let’s be honest with ourselves… you’re not gonna do that now are you? No, you’re most likely looking for some way to continue to train and minimize discomfort.

Can CBD help you in this quest is the big question. CBD does appear to be able to provide therapeutic benefit for inflamed joints in these situations. The exact mechanism that this happens is a little unclear, but the receptors for CBD are expressed on white blood cells, indicating the potential for both direct and indirect effects. Additionally, as we’re about to talk about, there are receptors expressed on neuronal cells that CBD appears able to modulate as well. So… whether be either breaking the feedback loop, or just minimizing your sensation of pain, there does appear to be some benefit. Full honesty, I think more research is needed… Personally, I’ve been using a CBD balm on my elbow and can notice a reduction in localized pain about 15-20 minutes after application. I also have some fairly serious inflammation deep in my knee. The balm does not really touch this sadly, but I think the oral tincture has helped.

CBD for anxiety

Anxiety is something that we all deal with on some level, but for people diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, it can be totally debilitating. Current medical treatment can involve benzodiazepines, anti-depressants, beta blockers and serotonin reuptake inhibitors… all pretty serious meds with a litany of side effects.

Of late, people have been studying how CBD can play a similar role as these meds using a “natural” compound. So while it’s not exactly an encyclopedia, there’s a solid amount of scientific literature supporting the idea that CBD can help manage anxiety based symptoms. Probably one of the better studies was done in 2017, which showed that CBD had a significant benefit in individuals with social phobia and anxiety. Not to get all geeky, but several receptors expressed highly in the brain (GPR55, the serotonin 5-HT receptor and several opioid receptors) have shown the ability to interact with CBD indicating the potential mechanism of action.

There are a few other decent studies, but it’d be great to see more research on CBD on anxiety type conditions. One impediment to getting more research done is that until recently, CBD was a banned substance because of its association with THC. Luckily though, its moved fully off the USADA and WADA banned substance list, opening the door to more and more research. Talking with a few friends in the medical community, it does seem like the use of CBD could allow for the dose of other medications to be reduced at minimum. However, each said that simply replacing prescription meds with CBD, or going “cold turkey” would be a really bad idea.

CBD for neurological issues

There’s probably more sound data on this topic than any of the others. Its rather difficult to get a drug approved by the FDA, and like I said Epidiolex is approved for the treatment of several forms of epilepsy. On top of that there’s some sketchy evidence around symptom relief for Huntingon’s, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. To be clear, not cures… just in theory helping with some of the symptoms.

The exciting research for me though is with the effects on concussions. Considering that about 1 million people are diagnosed with concussions every year, anything that can help with the effects is worth checking out. There was some motivating evidence that showed CBD consumption was correlated with reduced brain cell death after a concussion. Sure enough, some research indicates that CBD somehow activates receptors that trigger a cellular repair mechanism. Researchers at the University of Miami have begun to conduct a thorough 5-year study to see what affect CBD really does have a larger level. You can read more about the biology and the study here. Can’t wait to see the results here.

Potential side effects

So this review nicely summarizes the known literature and says that up to 1500 mg/day of CBD are well tolerated in humans. Having worked in this field for years, when they run clinical trials (like they did for Epidiolex) anything they see even once is reported as a possible side effect. In this case it mentions the potential metabolism of other drugs through the cytochrome P450 enzyme (sorry, geeking out hard right now), dry mouth, and in rare cases some symptoms associated with low blood pressure. At the end of the day, it’s a pretty small list compared to what else you’d find for something like Aspirin. For reference, grape fruit juice ALSO impacts the P450 pathway… but of course we don’t really list it as a “side effect” since its just fruit, right?

Needless to say, take some personal responsibility and the first time you try ANYTHING, pay attention to any unwanted effects. I’ve not heard of much from clients using it, but you should always make up your own mind about things like this.

Personal use and experience

So at the end of the day, I’ve been doing two things with CBD. The first I already mentioned, which was the cream on some minor chronic inflamed sites I’ve been trying to resolve.

The second is that I’ve brought CBD oil into my bedtime routine and have had some really nice results. Here’s what I’m currently doing:

I take this adrenal supplement every morning with breakfast, every single day of the week. It’s basically a mixture of adaptogenic herbs that help spike the appropriate morning response of cortisol production.

In the evening, I do a few things as well

1) 30 minutes of NO screen time (usually…).

2) I take 1 tsp ofNatural Calm which is a magnesium supplement. Magnesium has been shown to help calm the nervous system. Fun side fact: Most Americans are deficient in magnesium so… win win.

3) I take ~ 500 mg of CBD oil, again using the Pure Spectrum brand. Again, I chose this one because of the absurdly high quality and lack of shitty taste.

4) I run COLD water over my hands and face for 60 seconds to drop my core body temp a little and (in theory) improve HRV as well.

If you have any questions, hit us up in the Contact Us tab and we’ll get back to you.

Let's talk about Omega-3s...

Almost everyone who pays attention to their overall health these days has heard of Omega-3's and/or fish oil, and has some idea that they're helpful in combating inflammatory disease, achy joints, etc.

On top of that, most people also are aware that our current diets don't give us nearly enough Omega-3's.

What is a bit more of a mystery to people is that the typical American diet is LOADED with pro-inflammatory Omega-6 fats which appear to contribute to diseases such as heart disease, obesity and diabetes. Unfortunately, omega-6 fats are pretty ubiquitous in the modern American diet. #ThanksVegetableOil

Taking this all in, one can assume that a smart goal is to try and balance out our intake of Omega-3's to Omega-6's by using supplementation and/or eating fish. Its important to note though, that not all fish and/or fish oils are created equal.

BUT FIRST, let's work through some basic information...

The important Omega-3 fats are called EPA and DHA. DHA seems to have the more potent anti-inflammatory effects. EPA can be converted into DHA though too and seems to block inflammation as well.

Fish and fish oil crushes flax seed oil. Flax seed oil has high levels of a molecule called ALA and your body can convert ALA into EPA and DHA... but its a very inefficient process with less than 0.5% of the initial ALA forming DHA. So basically you'd have to take a full bottle of flax seed oil each day... thats not a great idea for obvious reasons.

Dose. Its hard to make a general recommendation on dose, but I'll say this; You can't simply take all the Omega-3's you want and still eat like an asshole. You've got to work on reducing your intake of crappy vegetable oils and limit other high Omega-6 foods (hello walnuts!!). If you do manage to reduce your Omega-6 intake, then you can also take less Omega-3s.

That said, I know some of you will want a general recommendation, so here it is:

~100-200 mg of EPA and DHA (combined) per 10 lbs of body weight.

So 1 tsp of this supplement gives you 850 mg of EPA and DHA. For a 180 lb male we'd want about 2 tsp per day.

OK, so how should we supplement this?

Well if you can afford it, buying wild caught fish a couple times a week would be a great start (AKA eat real food). Realistically though, I get that this can be an expensive endeavor so lets work through some supplement options as well.

What should we look for in a supplement?

Freshness. Omega-3 fats are susceptible to oxidation, which makes them rancid and also taste terrible. Worse news is that a rancid fish oil is pro-inflammatory defeating the whole purpose of supplementation! If you can get a liquid fish oil (versus a capsule) you'll always know if the product has gone off.

Potency. You want a nice high amount of EPA and DHA out of the total fat content. DHA is the more important of the two.

Vitamins and bio-availabiity. Fish liver oil (from cod as an example) contains fat-soluble vitamins that are difficult to obtain from other foods and has a better bio-availability due to the confirmation (#sciencedork). The more natural the structure the better.

Price: Because athletes are broke AF.

Recommendations:

Again, if you can handle a liquid version, then its the way to go as you don't have to pop a ton of pills, its actually more cost-effective and you can guarantee that you're not taking anything thats rancid. This is the brand that I recommend:

So there you have it. Omega-3's are a solid supplement for health and performance. Taken in moderate doses, they've been shown to be incredibly safe, making them an easy recommendation for the general population.

We're going to go for a deep-dive on Vitamin D3 biology, but if you're looking for the cheat-sheet, here's the take home messages:

Over-supplementing with Vitamin D can have seriously negative side effects due to calcium issues. Do not blindly supplement with 5000-10000 IU/day.

Take 1000-2000 IU/day of Vitamin D3 or better yet, get 30 minutes of sun exposure 3-5 times a week.

Make SURE to eat leafy greens (vitamin K rich) along with colorful fruits and veggies, eggs and butter (Vitamin A rich) to allow for appropriate calcium deposition and metabolism.

Vitamin D is a molecule that is typically made by skin cells, called keratinocytes, when we are exposed to the sun. It can also be found in relatively high amounts in fish, egg yolks, and cheese. Interestingly, its estimated that a large percentage of the US (and World) population is "deficient" in Vitamin D, more accurately a molecule its converted to called calcitriol, or 1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D.

Vitamin D has been shown to be important in the optimal function of MOST organ systems, including but not limited to:

Appropriate function of the immune system

Absorption of dietary calcium

Recovery from training

Body composition

Needless to say, we want to make sure we're dialed in with our levels.

One of the major issues is that there's very little consensus on what makes someone "deficient" in VD3. Medically, people think of numbers below 25 ng/ml in blood, however other researchers believe that optimal levels fall below 50-80 ng/ml. Clearly the medical world hasn't quite made up their minds yet.

It's estimated that direct sunlight for as little as 30 minutes, three times per week can induce the production of more than enough vitamin D. However, considering that up to 40% of Americans are deficient, either we're doing a terrible job at getting outside, this amount of exposure isn't cutting it, or there is another underlying biological issue.

The typical response to low VD3 levels is to supplement the crap out of people with 5-10,000 IU/day. People then come back after a few months and if their blood levels are not improved, the prescription goes even higher. Someone once told me a fun analogy using the "check oil" light in a car. If the light kept going on despite filling the oil regularly, would you simply continue to dump more oil in, or would you maybe search for another issue??? Thats probably what's going on here with your low vitamin D3 levels, as we keep adding more and more through supplementation, but not really making an impact.

Additionally, we need to consider if massive supplementation is a really smart idea to begin with. There are a handful of studies that show a correlation with lower VD3 levels and higher risk of basically all mortality. So thats not good and we should clearly supplement with it, right??

BUT...

Another set of studies correlate that mortality increases once you VD3 levels exceed 40 ng/ml. If you're like me you're probably thinking "Jesus, my head hurts... what the hell is going on here?" Well we're going to get to the bottom of this.

There is a risk factor called hypercalcemia, or high levels of calcium in the blood, thats been associated with fairly strong doses of vitamin D supplementation. On top of that, looking in the blood alone can be misleading. Calcium based kidney stones, as well as deposition into other soft tissues and... the big problem child, arterial deposition of calcium, have all been reported with Vitamin D3 supplementation as well.

Is this really about Vitamin D or is it about calcium???

So while you're probably ready to throw your supplement in the trash, we need to take a bigger picture look at this and figure out what the real culprit here is. One strong possibility is that our calcium levels are TOO HIGH, and that as a result, our body is trying to shut down one of the major calcium absorbers (the product of Vitamin D, calcitriol, or 1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D) to normalize out the levels.

Why might our calcium levels be too high??? Well there's a ton of reasons, but the most obvious ones involve inappropriate levels of other vitamins and minerals. The big players here being magnesium, vitamin A and Vitamin K.

Just to give you an example of WHY its important to balance out your micronutrients, lets look at Vitamin K as an example. Vitamin K does a ton of things in the body, but one of the most critical is to allow for calcium deposition into bone (AKA taking calcium out of the blood stream, arteries, etc). Fun fact, if you supplement rats with Vitamin K2, it inhibits artery calcification quite nicely. So the basic idea goes that if you don't have enough Vitamin K, then your blood calcium levels rise. To combat bringing even MORE calcium into your body, feedback mechanisms prevent the conversion of vitamin D3 into its active calcitriol form. As a result of this, you end up "low" on vitamin D3 when you test for it. Your doctors see this and just supplement the shit out of you, but this doesn't really solve the problem, if anything it just worsens it.

What SHOULD you do?

OK, so most of you probably don't care about the biology, you just want to know the end game. Here's the best general recommendations we can make:

1) Try and get some sun when you can. The body does a good job of shutting off vitamin D production when it doesn't need to make it.

2) Take 1000-2000 IU/day, especially in the winter.

3) Eat some mother trucking veggies. Vitamin K is found in dark green leafy veggies like kale, spinach and swiss chard. Vitamin A is found in colorful fruits and veggies eggs and butter.

4) Take a good probiotic (more to come on this later) as Vitamin K conversion happens in the GI tract

In the following guide, we'll cover how to:

Set Up Your Account & Profile

Download the App

Setting Up Your Account

"Friending" Your Coach

Adjusting Your Privacy Settings

Setting Up Your Macro Prescription

Note for Readers: The MyFitnessPal interface & functionality may vary depending on the device you are accessing your account from. We tried to take this account when writing these articles, but if you find yourself "stuck," don't hesitate to reach out to your M2 Coach for help.

Downloading the App: MyFitnessPal

Setting Up Your Account

Once you've downloaded the app, and have selected “Sign Up” on the welcome screen, you will be prompted on-screen to complete a basic account setup (ie username, password, profile, etc.)

IMPORTANT NOTES:

The paid version of MyFitnessPal is not a requirement for M2 Clients.

Beyond the basics, the MyFitnessPal app will ask you a sleuth of questions, but don’t sweat these - they are simply a formality. Your M2PN coach will be overriding many of these settings, so just move past these questions as quickly as you can…(ESPECIALLY the question asking how much weight you want to lose per week… YIKES!

"Friending" Your Coach

To ensure your coach is able to provide feedback on your food diary, we will need to become "friends" within the MyFitnessPal app.

The "main menu" button can vary based on the type of phone/app version you have. The button is typically located on the left hand side - top or bottom, and the icon is generally 3 horizontal lines or dots.

Your coach will provide for you their Username, type it in, and click the check mark

Adjusting Your Privacy Settings

In order for us access your MyFitnessPal food log, we need you to change some privacy settings:

Set it to either “Friends Only” or “Public” depending on how you feel about it.

Setting Up Your Macro Prescription

Again in this section, we will be overriding the suggested "goals" that MyFitnessPal inputs, by default. While it's a great tool, MyFitnessPal is NOT a highly qualified and experienced nutrition coach, and your M2 coach takes much more into consideration when prescribing your custom goals.

In the following guide, we'll cover how to:

Use the App to Log Food

Steps to Logging Basic Food

Steps to Logging Food - Barcode Method

Steps to Logging Food - Eating Out

Note for Readers: The MyFitnessPal interface & functionality may vary depending on the device you are accessing your account from. We tried to take this account when writing these articles, but if you find yourself "stuck," don't hesitate to reach out to your M2 Coach for help.

Using the App to Log Food

Tracking food is the main function of this app and the main purpose we use it here at M2. We know it can seem intimidating at first, but MyFitnessPal has some great features and a massive database to simplify food tracking.

Our hope for this guide is to help you become comfortable & efficient tracking your daily intake.

Steps to Logging Basic Food

Click the blue “+” in the bottom center of your home screen OR select "diary" in your main menu.

Click the orange fork and knife “food” image OR the "add food" option from diary view.

Select which meal you are logging

Once you select the meal you are logging, type the food you are looking for in the search bar at the top (Ex. Rice)

Once you've selected your food item, ensure you adjust the serving size to properly reflect how much you consume.

Tip: It is often possible to change the metrics that the food is measured in (Ex. ½ cup might also be 100g and can be changed under “serving size”)

Other Notes:

The location of the "+" varies by device.

The app will default you to having 3 meals and a snack option.

Steps to Logging Basic Food - Barcode Method

A great feature available through the MyFitnessPal app is the ability to scan the UPC label on purchased products, and if the product is pre-loaded in their system with the corresponding bar code, then adding to your diary is super easy!

Complete all the same steps as above

Once you're at the search screen, there should be a "barcode" icon

Tip: usually located at the top right of the screen.

Once you've selected the scan option, an on-screen scanner should appear using the camera on your phone

Align the red line, in the middle of the screen, over the barcode until the line is green

Adjust serving size accordingly and add to your daily food diary

Steps to Logging Basic Food - Eating Out

Another great resource within the MyFitnessPal is the ability to look up common dishes found at popular restaurants. Some of these are user inputted, but many times, you will find that popular restaurants (ie: Panera Bread, Chipotle, Chick-Fil-A, etc) have uploaded their full menus for you.

Complete all the same steps as above

Once you're at the search screen, just search the restaurant and menu item like you would any other food.

TIPS:

We have found the restaurant search feature to be case sensitive, at times. Make sure you are very precise when searching restaurants.

We have also found that many restaurants will upload their entire menu which makes logging much easier. Typically, if you search the restaurant, there is a clickable link labeled "View Menu." By clicking this link, all the uploaded food items for the restaurant should load for you.

In the following guide, we'll cover how to:

Note for Readers: The MyFitnessPal interface & functionality may vary depending on the device you are accessing your account from. We tried to take this account when writing these articles, but if you find yourself "stuck," don't hesitate to reach out to your M2 Coach for help.

How to Track Your "Macro Budget"

Think of your daily macro goals like a bank account; you have "X" amount of P/F/C grams (Protein/Fat/Carbohydrate) prescribed as your daily allotment. Unlike your normal bank account, the goal of your "Macro Account" is to break even at the end of the day - we don't want to be undereating or overeating as both have consequences. In order to come out even at the end of the day, you are smartest to monitor your balance as the day goes to ensure you are consuming within your means,

Thankfully, within the MyFitnessPal app, there is a way to track your "ongoing balance" or otherwise known as the "Nutrients" tab under "Nutrition."

Steps to Using the "Nutrients" Tab:

Here, you will see the “bank account” representing your intake for the day compared to the goal you are working to meet.

The blue line will adjust accordingly, representing your progress towards your daily goals, as you add food throughout the day.

We encourage you to check this balance frequently throughout the day, as you plan and consume your meals to assist in your food selections.

Tip: There are numerous ways to access the "nutrients" tab in the diary portion of MFP, depending on the device you are utilizing. Typically, the icon used within the app to represent this screen is a "pie chart" icon.